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Clinical Method  ·  NGH India

The MTP™ Method: What It Is and How It Works

A 30-year clinical synthesis of Meditation, Trance, and Psychotherapy — explained by the practitioner who built it.

AuthorDr. Maruti Sharma, PhD — RCI Reg. A100310
Reviewed byDr. Akanksha Mangotra, MD — Gurugram
PublishedApril 2026
Reading time~18 minutes
Abstract — clinical summary

Problem: Single-modality therapy accesses only one level of the mind. India's 150 million people requiring mental health intervention are largely served by modalities applied in isolation — with predictably partial results for conditioning-based presentations.

Method: The MTP™ Method integrates Meditation, Trance, and Psychotherapy Protocols in a specific clinical sequence designed to access all levels of the mind simultaneously.

Finding: Adding hypnosis to CBT produces significantly better outcomes than CBT alone.3 Mindfulness meditation produces measurable increases in grey matter density.1 Cognitive Hypnotherapy produces superior outcomes to CBT alone in treating depression.7

Implication: Lasting psychological change requires access to the level where patterns are organised — below conscious narrative. The MTP Method is designed to reach that level, in sequence, within a single clinical framework.

Key points — plain language

  • The MTP™ Method integrates Meditation, Trance, and Psychotherapy into one sequenced clinical framework.
  • Each component accesses a different level of the mind. All three are needed for complete, lasting change.
  • Developed over 30 years from both Eastern contemplative lineages and Western clinical practice.
  • Each component has an independent peer-reviewed evidence base. This is integrative clinical work — not alternative medicine.
  • Taught exclusively through the NGH India certification programme.
Dr. Maruti Sharma — creator of the MTP™ Method, NGH India

The MTP™ Method is a clinical framework developed by Dr. Maruti Sharma — RCI-licensed clinical psychologist (Reg. A100310), PhD in Vajrayana Buddhist Psychology — that integrates Meditation, Trance, and Psychotherapy Protocols into one approach to lasting psychological change. It resolves a structural limitation of standard therapy: that each single modality reaches only one level of the mind.

Most people who arrive at this page have already tried something. They have talked, read, and intellectually understood their patterns. The understanding has not been sufficient to change them. The reason for that is structural, not personal — and it is precisely the problem the MTP Method was built to address.

The method is taught exclusively through the NGH India certification programme. It is the clinical foundation from which every NGH India-trained practitioner works.

150M
Indians require active mental health intervention India has fewer than 0.07 mental health professionals per 100,000 people by WHO estimates. The gap is not only one of access — it is one of method depth.10

Why doesn't one type of therapy work for everything?

Every major therapeutic modality was built to solve a real problem. Cognitive-behavioural therapy works well when the difficulty is primarily one of maladaptive thought patterns. Psychodynamic approaches work when the difficulty lies in unresolved historical material. Mindfulness-based approaches work when the difficulty is a reactive relationship with present experience.

None of these, used in isolation, is consistently effective across the full range of clinical presentations. The reason is not poor design. The reason is structural.

Each modality accesses a different level of the mind. Cognitive approaches operate at the level of conscious reasoning. Mindfulness approaches extend this into present-moment somatic awareness. Hypnosis and trance-based approaches access the level below the threshold of conscious resistance — where patterns are actually organised and maintained.

Genuine therapeutic change requires access to all three levels. A method that reaches only one produces partial results. This is a design limitation of the modality itself.

The MTP™ Method was developed to resolve this limitation. Meditation builds the attentional substrate. Trance accesses the level where the pattern lives. Psychotherapy protocols integrate the change into conscious life. Each step prepares the next. The sequence is the method.

Common myths about integrated clinical hypnotherapy

MythHypnosis means losing control of your mind.
FactThe hypnotic state preserves full volition. Clients remain aware throughout. The APA and BPS both recognise clinical hypnosis as a legitimate therapeutic modality.4
MythMeditation is just a relaxation technique.
FactIn the MTP framework, meditation is specific attentional training — producing measurable neurological changes in brain structure.1,12
MythThe MTP Method is alternative medicine.
FactEach component has an independent peer-reviewed evidence base. This is integrative clinical psychology.
MythYou must believe in it for it to work.
FactOpenness is sufficient. Belief is not required. The hypnotic state is a naturally occurring neurological condition.
MythLasting change requires years of therapy.
FactWhen change occurs at the level where the pattern is organised, it is often substantially faster than insight-based approaches alone. Initial shifts are typically visible within 4–8 sessions.

Does the MTP Method address the kind of difficulty you are experiencing?

This is a pattern-recognition tool, not a diagnostic instrument. It may help you assess whether your current difficulty has the character of a conditioning-based pattern.

You have tried therapy before but found that insights did not translate into lasting change.
You understand your patterns intellectually but cannot seem to interrupt them in real life.
You experience anxiety, fear, or distress that feels disproportionate to your circumstances.
Old memories, wounds, or grief continue to affect your daily functioning.
You experience physical symptoms — pain, tension, fatigue, skin, or gut — without a clear medical explanation.
You find yourself in the same relationship dynamics, with different people, repeatedly.
You have a performance or creative block that willpower alone has not resolved.
You feel there is a truer, freer version of yourself that is not yet accessible in daily life.
You have tried medication and found it insufficient, partial, or an unwanted long-term dependency.
You are willing to do structured inner work — not just receive advice or talk about your problems.

This checklist is a pattern-recognition tool. It does not constitute a clinical diagnosis.


What does conventional therapy do well — and where does it stop?

Medication manages symptoms effectively in many presentations. It does not access conditioning. When medication is withdrawn, the pattern typically returns unchanged.

CBT produces reliable results for symptom reduction in anxiety and depression.6 Its limitation is the level it operates at — the level of conscious cognition. Conditioning patterns organised below that level are not fully reached.

Mindfulness-based approaches — MBSR, ACT — extend reach into present-moment awareness. They do not systematically access the hypnotic depth required for subconscious schema restructuring.

Standard hypnotherapy uses the trance state for suggestion — but suggestion without psychotherapy protocols has limited structural impact. The MTP Method uses trance as a delivery vehicle, not as the intervention itself.

ApproachCognitive levelEmotional/body levelSubconscious conditioningMTP™ Method
MedicationIndirectlyPartiallyNo
CBTYesPartiallyNo
Mindfulness / ACTYesYesPartially
Standard hypnotherapyNoYesYes
MTP™ MethodYesYesYes✓ All three

What does the evidence say about Meditation, Trance, and Psychotherapy?

Each component of the MTP™ Method has an independent peer-reviewed evidence base. The integration is original. The components are empirically established across decades of research.

M — Meditation: building the neurological substrate

Hölzel et al. (2011) demonstrated that eight weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction produced measurable increases in grey matter density in the hippocampus — with concurrent reductions in amygdala grey matter density.1 Lazar et al. (2005) showed that experienced meditators had significantly greater cortical thickness in regions associated with attention and interoception.12

Without attentional stability, trance is shallow. Without attentional stability, psychotherapy produces intellectual insight that does not translate into lived change. The meditation component builds the substrate on which all deeper MTP work rests.

T — Trance: accessing the level where the pattern lives

Kirsch, Montgomery, and Sapirstein's landmark 1995 meta-analysis found that adding hypnosis to CBT produced significantly better outcomes than CBT alone across anxiety, pain, and depression presentations.3

The specific techniques employed within the MTP framework include Ericksonian indirect suggestion, Elman rapid induction, direct suggestion methodology, and ego-state techniques — selected according to the clinical presentation, never applied uniformly.

P — Psychotherapy Protocols: integration into lived experience

Alladin and Alibhai (2007) demonstrated that Cognitive Hypnotherapy produced superior outcomes to CBT alone in treating depression.7 In the MTP Method, psychotherapy protocols are applied in the hypnotic state — where insight is not merely cognitive but somatic, emotional, and deeply integrated.

The Eastern lineage: what contemplative science knew first

The Eastern lineage includes Sammohan Vidya rooted in the Atharva Veda — the oldest documented framework for inducing altered states therapeutically. Vajrayana Buddhist psychology holds that the mind is naturally luminous and unobstructed. Suffering is the product of conditioning layered over an awareness that is already free.

Most practitioners inherit one tradition. The MTP Method was built by a practitioner who has worked through all of them.

"Insight that stays in the head is not transformation. In trance, insight becomes somatic — it lands in the body, in the nervous system, where the pattern actually lives. That is where change becomes permanent."

— Dr. Maruti Sharma

Working with Dr. Maruti Sharma

What does a course of MTP Method work actually look like?

Every engagement begins with a 90-minute clinical evaluation — a detailed history of the presenting difficulty, its developmental roots, and the specific level at which it appears to be organised. From this, the treatment arc is mapped.

The MTP Method is not a protocol applied uniformly. It is a framework applied specifically — adapted to the clinical picture of each person.

The question is not whether change is possible. The question is what is actually maintaining the pattern.

Begin the conversation with Dr. Sharma →

What does the MTP Method look like inside an actual clinical case?

The following are anonymised composite descriptions drawn from 30 years of clinical work. No identifying details are real. The patterns are.

Pattern A — The informed sufferer

A 38-year-old executive arrived with what he called performance anxiety. He had read extensively. He could name his cognitive distortions accurately. He understood, intellectually, that his fear of failure was disproportionate to his circumstances. The understanding had made no difference.

In trance, we accessed the original conditioning event — a specific classroom humiliation at age nine — not through narrative recall, but through direct somatic experience. The schema restructured from within. The performance pattern shifted in ways that four years of CBT had not produced.

Pattern B — The invisible template

A 44-year-old woman presented with a repeating relational pattern — consistently choosing unavailable partners. The articulation did not interrupt the pattern.

The MTP sequence worked differently: meditation stabilised her attention; trance accessed the early relational template directly; psychotherapy protocols restructured the schema from within that experience. The pattern interrupted after the third session. In her words: "Something lifted. Not a thought. Something underneath the thoughts."

Pattern C — The body's record

A 52-year-old physician presented with chronic tension headaches and a dermatological condition with no clear organic explanation. Three MTP sessions targeting the emotional material beneath the symptom produced significant reduction in both presentations.

★★★★★

"I had worked with three psychologists over six years. I understood myself reasonably well. What I could not do was change. After four sessions of MTP work with Dr. Sharma — something fundamental shifted. Not in my thinking alone. In how I physically feel in my own skin."

— Senior Consultant, 41, Bengaluru. Name withheld at client's request.

Dr. Maruti Sharma
Dr. Maruti Sharma
PhD Vajrayana Buddhist Psychology  ·  RCI Reg. A100310  ·  NGH USA Board Certified  ·  Founding President, NGH India

Dr. Maruti Sharma has spent 30 years at the intersection of Eastern contemplative science and Western clinical psychology. As an RCI-licensed clinical psychologist, creator of the MTP™ Method, and Founding President of NGH India, he has worked with clients across 100+ countries.

Peer reviewed by Dr. Akanksha Mangotra, Medical Doctor, Gurugram. LinkedIn Full bio →

What does working with Dr. Sharma on the MTP Method actually involve?

Initial evaluation

The first session is a 90-minute clinical evaluation — covering the presenting difficulty, its developmental history, prior treatment, and the specific level at which the pattern appears to be organised.

Session structure

Sessions are 60 to 90 minutes, typically weekly. Available online via Zoom — globally — and in person in Jammu, with periodic availability in Delhi and Gurugram.

Timeline

Initial shifts are typically visible within 4 to 8 sessions. Sustained transformation generally requires 3 to 6 months of structured work. The duration depends on the depth of the pattern, not an arbitrary session count.


Who is the MTP Method designed for — and who is it not?

Good fit
  • Conditioning-based difficulty — anxiety, trauma, habit, relational patterns
  • Prior therapy with insight but without lasting change
  • Psychosomatic presentations without clear organic cause
  • Performance or creative blocks resistant to cognitive intervention
  • Willingness to engage in structured inner work
Not a fit
  • Active psychosis requiring primary psychiatric management
  • Acute psychiatric crisis requiring immediate intervention
  • Active substance dependency without medical management
  • Passive expectation of being fixed without personal engagement
  • Presentations where medication alone is the primary indicated treatment

How do I train in the MTP Method and become NGH India certified?

The MTP™ Method is taught exclusively through the NGH India certification programme. The NGH India programme leads to four international credentials:

  • MTP™ Method Certification — Dr. Maruti Sharma / NGH India
  • Certified Hypnotherapist — National Guild of Hypnotists USA
  • Certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming
  • Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist — NGH India
NGH India Certification

Train directly under Dr. Maruti Sharma — the only place the MTP™ Method is taught.

The NGH India programme is the sole path to MTP™ Method Certification. Every component of the method — its clinical rationale, techniques, sequence, and lineage — is taught in full, under direct supervision.

View the certification programme →

Questions people ask about the MTP Method

Yes. The MTP™ Method was developed and is practised exclusively by Dr. Maruti Sharma — RCI Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Reg. A100310, based in Jammu, India. He conducts sessions in person and online via Zoom. To begin, visit marutisharma.com.

Standard hypnotherapy uses the trance state primarily for suggestion. The MTP Method uses trance as the delivery vehicle for structured psychotherapy protocols. Meditation prepares the attentional substrate first. The result is change at the level where the pattern is organised.

Yes. Each component has an independent peer-reviewed evidence base. Clinical hypnosis is supported by systematic reviews and RCTs. Mindfulness meditation produces measurable neurological changes. The psychotherapy protocols are each individually evidence-based.

The MTP Method has been applied across anxiety disorders, trauma, psychosomatic conditions, performance difficulties, relationship and attachment patterns, habit and compulsion disorders, and existential or identity-level difficulties. It is most effective where conditioning — rather than organic cause — is the primary maintaining mechanism.

Clinical hypnosis conducted by a trained, licensed practitioner is safe. The hypnotic state does not remove volition — clients remain aware throughout. The APA and BPS both recognise clinical hypnosis as a legitimate therapeutic modality.

Initial shifts are typically visible within 4 to 8 sessions. Sustained structural change generally requires 3 to 6 months of work. The duration depends on the depth and chronicity of the presenting pattern.

Yes. Dr. Sharma conducts sessions via Zoom with clients across India and internationally. In-person sessions are available in Jammu, with periodic availability in Delhi and Gurugram.


Mental health support available in India right now

Tele-MANAS
14416 — 24/7, free, multilingual. Government of India mental health helpline.
iCall — TISS
9152987821 — Mon–Sat, 8am–10pm. Counselling and referral.
Vandrevala Foundation
1860-2662-345 — 24/7, free, confidential crisis support.
NIMHANS
nimhans.ac.in — National Institute of Mental Health, Bengaluru.

सारांश — Key Points in Hindi
  • MTP™ पद्धति ध्यान, ट्रांस और मनोचिकित्सा का एक एकीकृत नैदानिक ढांचा है।
  • यह पद्धति मन के तीनों स्तरों — संज्ञानात्मक, भावनात्मक, और अवचेतन — तक एक क्रम में पहुँचती है।
  • डॉ. मारुति शर्मा ने इसे तीस वर्षों के नैदानिक अभ्यास से विकसित किया है।
  • MTP™ पद्धति केवल NGH India प्रमाणन कार्यक्रम के माध्यम से सिखाई जाती है।

Clinical and research references

  1. Hölzel BK et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 2011;191(1):36–43.
  2. Kirsch I, Montgomery G, Sapirstein G. Hypnosis as an adjunct to CBT: a meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1995;63(2):214–220.
  3. Elkins GR et al. The revised APA Division 30 definition of hypnosis. IJCEH. 2015;63(1):1–9.
  4. Hofmann SG et al. The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive Therapy and Research. 2012;36(5):427–440.
  5. Alladin A, Alibhai A. Cognitive hypnotherapy for depression. IJCEH. 2007;55(2):147–166.
  6. World Health Organization. Mental Health Atlas 2020. Geneva: WHO; 2021.
  7. Lazar SW et al. Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. NeuroReport. 2005;16(17):1893–1897.

Where to go next

NGH India Certification Programme The MTP™ Method — full clinical overview at marutisharma.com PubMed — research on integrated hypnotherapy

Two paths forward

Train in the MTP Method.
Or begin working with
the practitioner who built it.

The NGH India certification programme is the only place the MTP™ Method is taught. Dr. Maruti Sharma sees clients privately at marutisharma.com. Both paths begin with a conversation.

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